


In Another Lifetime

by AifasInTheSky



Category: Mortal Kombat (Video Games)
Genre: Also the major character death tag is for a death that happens soon enough in the game, Er I don't know what to tag this, Game: Mortal Kombat 11, Game: Mortal Kombat 11 Spoilers, Just sayin', M/M, Others appear but I won't tag to clutter, This is completely self indulgent please bear with me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-14 05:14:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29662302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AifasInTheSky/pseuds/AifasInTheSky
Summary: At this point in time, Johnny Cage is a lot easier to deal with.
Relationships: Johnny Cage/Raiden
Kudos: 6





	In Another Lifetime

At this point in time, Johnny Cage is a lot easier to deal with. He guesses he can understand the appeal.

He chuckles, sending Sonya Blade a heartfelt apology. Neither is it his intention to overstep boundaries, nor has it been her timeless, futile death. He is guilty of both, he realizes with a pang of something—Sympathy? Remorse? These mortals have him feeling emotions he did not for a long, long time.

Case in point: Johnny Cage. Age 56, widow, father of Cassandra Cage, age 25. Neither of them is too happy to see him at the moment, memories of death and anger and grief too fresh in them. He regrets what his future self has come to be, if at least for the pain on the eyes of his friends. And now knowing the destiny of his protégés… It’s almost too much to bear.

Alas, such is the burden of an eternal god. He will try, once again, to rectify his errors, at least in the realm of possibility. The Elder Gods do not seem to be much cooperative these days, and that threatens to make him spiral down in desperation.

“… Are you okay, dude?” Johnny Cage—not _his_ Johnny Cage, not that he was ever his, but… He mentally facepalms. He needs to get his act together. He focuses his gaze on the military man—military!—whose gaze radiates concern, and a tinge of wariness. “You’ve been staring at my chest for several minutes now.”

He would have blushed if he still could. However, the years seemed to have, fortunately, taken away his ability to do so. Get a grip on yourself, Raiden.

“I am fine. Merely concerned.”

“You don’t look just ‘concerned,’” Johnny Cage retorts with a smirk. Ah, so the cheekiness never left. He suppresses a smile. “Something’s really bugging you. What is it?”

He sighs, deciding to let his guard down at least a bit. After all, look at where his acts of toughness have led them all. “I have really let all of you down, have I not?”

He can see grief and anger in Johnny Cage’s eyes, then understanding when he remembers that he’s not the Raiden he came to know—the one that got Sonya Blade killed. Well, he thinks remorsefully, is he not? ‘Not yet,’ the voice of the Elder Gods seems to answer him, and he does not quite know what to do with himself.

“Listen,” Johnny Cage says, serious. “I can’t deal with god guilt, and you know it. Hell, I can’t even deal with my own guilt. I should’ve—” He catches himself and exhales. Closes his eyes. Opens them again. “It doesn’t matter. Not now. What matters now is setting things right, alright? Before whoever it is messes up with time even more and we can’t fix things anymore.”

He gulps. Since when has a mortal set his head straight in such a manner? Johnny Cage _has_ grown up. As evidenced by not only his white hairs, but for the contrast with his counterpart, who is—shamelessly flirting with Sonya Blade from his time, which is a wake-up call as few things are.

Johnny Cage groans. “I know this is me I’m talking about, and you won’t hear me say this again, but can please _someone_ put a leash on him?”

He smiles. The situation may look dire, but with his Kombatants at his side—with his friends—and that is a lot to say, is it not? He is certain they will get to the bottom of this.

They can do this.

\-----

He might have underestimated the powers at play—and how utterly _furious_ they are at him.

The Elder Gods are no more; all but one, the most revengeful of them all. Done with the way he messed with the timelines—with life and death and everything in between, all for the sake of his own little, beloved realm—Kronika is merciless as she unleashes the army of the undead and her most powerful allies, most of them his own old friends.

He was glad, at some point in the battle, that Johnny Cage was not one of them.

Now, however, he is afraid for the terrible destiny he has entangled the man in.

He feels mortality dawn on him as he transfers his powers to Liu Kang. He knows he is done for, now. He can only hope for the others to resist long enough for his protégé to arrive at Kronika’s lair in the heart of the Netherrealm.

That does not mean he has abandoned the fight; on the contrary, with all his mortal might, he charges against the hordes of the undead, careful to live on, to be able to help the most possible—

And then he sees it.

Unable to do anything, he watches as a revenant Nightwolf gets Johnny Cage on a chokehold, and the desperation with which the man struggles for his life. It is unfair. Johnathan Cage should be watching his girl grow up, along with his beloved wife, not struggling for his life against old friends turned foes by Raiden’s own hand.

The first teardrop in an eon escapes him.

Time stops, and the tear never reaches the floor.

\-----

He has explained to Lord Liu Kang what his and Kitana’s duties are now. How Raiden—not Lord Raiden anymore—is destined now to live a whole life, and die at, hopefully, an old age by human standards. Both looked into each other’s eyes, and their gaze said the same: “I will miss you, old friend.”

As he loses consciousness, he hopes he gets to remember, at least once in his new lifetime, the friends he made in his last years.

\-----

One day, as he is checking the plantations, a god comes before him.

He has always been a religious man. So that is why he recognizes Lord Cage on sight—not just by his appearance, no. It is more because of something, deep inside him, stirring and telling him he has been waiting for this moment.

“Lord Cage,” he says, lowering his head in a deep bow.

He can hear the smirk in the god’s voice when he answers: “Call me Johnny.”

He looks up to see greyish hair, fond eyes and a smile that makes him think that, in another lifetime, in other circumstances, were he a god or, gods forbid, Lord Cage a mere human, he would have taken the chance.

“Now, up, Raiden, there’s a Mortal Kombat to win.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! Welcome to er... I can't believe I wrote MK fic after so many years outside the fandom. I've never done much, but there's this fic [[It's Like Thunder, Lightning (the Way You Love Me Is Slightly Frightening)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1758339) by Misura] that I absolutely love and made me fall in love with this completely bonkers rarepair. And I say it with all my love XD
> 
> I don't have much to say other than yes, this is slightly AU in terms of happenings (and most probably _very_ OOC) but cringe is dead, pals B)
> 
> Thank you very much for reading; I really hope you like it! ♥


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